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• House lawmakers returned to Washington for a four-day session to address legislation on Russia sanctions, Iran, and data center energy costs before the November midterm elections. • This session serves as the final opportunity for the House to pass major bills before members leave for campaign activities through Election Day. • The outcome of these votes will determine the immediate U.S. policy stance on foreign adversaries and the regulation of energy use for data centers.

• Reform UK is facing scrutiny over its funding sources as political opponents attempt to frame the party as a vehicle for foreign-linked donors. • The party received a record £72 million donation from crypto billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne to expand its staffing and policy work. • These overseas financial links provide an opening for centre-left leaders to use patriotism as an electoral weapon against the right.

• Saudi Arabia is struggling to balance military deterrence and diplomacy as conflict escalates with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. • The kingdom faces increasing security and economic pressures resulting from the ongoing instability in its neighboring country. • Geopolitical stability is required for Saudi Arabia to successfully host major international events, including Expo 2030 and the 2034 FIFA World Cup.

Home affairs minister Tony Burke will detail long-awaited changes as support for One Nation surges amid immigration debateFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our new political email, free app or daily news podcastForeign students will face tough restrictions on the ability to bring family members into Australia, as the federal government shifts sections of the country’s immigration system away from demand-driven settings.Long-awaited changes will be revealed by the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, on Thursday, and are expected to include efforts to stop visa overstays and limit lengthy appeals processes for applicants.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...

• Scott Bessent testified before Congress recently as lawmakers questioned the Treasury Department regarding its economic agenda. • Members of Congress focused their scrutiny on specific issues including inflation, national debt, and fuel prices. • The testimony highlights the political pressure on the Treasury to manage fiscal policies that directly impact consumer costs and market stability.

• The Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve are preparing for key policy decisions during a central bank week. • Investors are monitoring UK labor market data for July and August and August consumer price index figures to predict interest rate movements. • These economic indicators will determine if the Bank of England shifts its probability for future rate hikes.

• Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Utah Governor Spencer Cox appeared on the September 13, 2026, broadcast of "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." • The program featured a Battleground Tracker analysis from Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report regarding the race for control of Congress. • The discussion provides voters and political analysts with data on key congressional contests less than two months before Election Day.

• The FBI, NSA, and CISA accused six Chinese AI companies, including DeepSeek and Moonshot, of training their systems on American models since 2024. • Federal agencies claim this practice allowed companies to extract capabilities worth billions and helped DeepSeek understate its $5.6 million training cost. • These accusations suggest Chinese labs are bypassing expensive compute and token requirements to close the technological gap with the US.

Reform UK’s economic spokesperson talks to Sky News and BBC after record donations Christopher Harborne matches £36m Reform donation of Ben DeloAnalysis: Donations of £72m make Reform’s prospects both rosier and riskierGood morning and welcome to the Guardian’s politics live blog in what is a fairly tumultuous period in electoral financing. To recap: In the past 48 hours, Reform UK has received a staggering sum of £72m from two crypto billionaires, the largest single donations in British political history. Christopher Harborne’s £36m donation, which he announced in the Telegraph newspaper yesterday, matches that given by another cryptocurrency investor Ben Delo on Friday.The huge injection into Reform’s coffers obviously help fund the anti-immigration party’s operations leading into the next general election, to be held by 2029. But it has also further muddied the reputation around the party’s finances and who it says it serves. Reform has pledged more crypto-friendly policies i.e. greater adoption of the unregulated currency across the UK if the party were to come into power. Continue reading...

• The Social Democrats are currently leading in the polls for Sweden's upcoming election, though their advantage is narrowing. • A victory for the Social Democrat-led coalition would provide a rare win for Europe's center-left political movement. • The tightening race creates uncertainty for the Swedish government's future policy direction and the broader European political landscape.

• Swedish voters are heading to the polls in a tight contest that could move far-right parties from political isolation to coalition partners in government. • This shift follows a recent victory in Germany where the AfD party surged into first place in a state election for the first time since World War II. • The political trend reflects growing public anxiety over mass immigration and could fundamentally alter Sweden's reputation as one of Europe's most liberal nations.

Washington Post report also reveals Jon Husted staffer Stephen Woytek created pro-Rhodesia playlist on Spotify The Republican senator for Ohio, Jon Husted, has fired an aide who was discovered to have used a photo of Nazi SS soldiers as his Facebook profile photo.Stephen Woytek was appointed as Husted’s political director last month in the senator’s knife-edge re-election contest against former Democrat senator Sherrod Brown. According to the Washington Post, Husted had decided to “part ways” with Woytek, 25, after learning that his Facebook profile showed he followed a military re-enactment group called LAH Living History Unit, which portrays the 1st SS Panzer division. Continue reading...

• India will host the BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12-13, 2026. • The event will test whether the expanded and more diverse group of nations can effectively wield its political influence. • The summit represents a balancing act for India as it manages relationships between China, Russia, and Western powers.

National Audit Office says failure to implement £70bn modernisation would also hold back economic growthThe ‘great grid upgrade’ is off track – ministers should spell out the risks for billsConsumers will pay higher energy bills unless the UK government speeds up work on a vast programme of upgrades to the electricity grid to enable the switch to renewables, the public spending watchdog has warned.The National Audit Office (NAO) said that without faster action the extra costs associated with managing the ageing power network, which are ultimately passed on to the public, could reach £7.8bn a year by 2030. Continue reading...

UK government reviewing allegations about My Surrogacy Journey after complaints about medical costsThe UK government has said it is reviewing allegations about a British-owned surrogacy service after surrogates in Mexico who faced health complications including a hysterectomy had their insurance claims rejected.The Department of Health and Social Care is considering whether the UK-based provider My Surrogacy Journey should remain listed on gov.uk as one of four domestic surrogacy agencies available to intended parents, after its Mexican sister company received complaints. Continue reading...

• U.S. AI startups including OpenAI and Anthropic are facing scrutiny over the methods they use to calculate annualized revenue. • The companies are applying different accounting standards to their revenue claims as they prepare for initial public offerings. • These discrepancies create uncertainty for investors regarding the actual financial health and valuation of AI firms.

The payments amounted to 30% of each aides’ $150,000 annual salaryDonald Trump may have committed “serious” ethical violations by giving three officials including his close personal aide Natalie Harp cash gifts of $45,000 each, according to a former White House “ethics czar”, as a watchdog group called for an investigation.The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the US Office of Government Ethics over the US president’s handouts to a handful of staff, arguing that an investigation is “clearly warranted”. Continue reading...

Bronwen James, 30, admitted offences against two girls at schools in Wiltshire and Hampshire, and found guilty of charges involving boyA former PE teacher is facing a lengthy jail sentence for grooming and sexually abusing three pupils at two schools.Bronwen James, 30, admitted offences against two girls at schools in Hampshire and Wiltshire and was found guilty by a jury of charges involving a boy. Continue reading...

• The U.S. Treasury announced a $6 billion buyback of government bonds, which caused a pullback in the bond market. • This decision disappointed investors and has led analysts to question if the European Central Bank will follow a similar policy path. • The outcome of these central bank decisions directly affects the valuation and stability of the Euro against other global currencies.

Labelled a tourist tax, proposals would give mayors power to decide how revenue raised should be investedUK politics live – latest updatesHolidaymakers will face a nightly levy on hotel stays and Airbnb-style visits in England under plans ministers are due to outline to give mayors new powers.The idea, labelled a tourist tax, was first raised by Keir Starmer’s government in November and is similar to a scheme running in Scotland. It would allow mayors to charge a fee to visitors staying overnight and decide how the revenue raised should be invested. Continue reading...

• India is attempting to build consensus among member nations at the BRICS summit to overcome deep global divisions. • Harsh V Pant of the Observer Research Foundation notes that India will prioritize the developmental challenges of the Global South to foster unity. • The outcome determines whether BRICS maintains its credibility as a representative bloc for emerging economies or succumbs to internal rifts.

• Singapore enterprises are attempting to scale artificial intelligence but face production adoption hurdles due to constraints in data, security, infrastructure, and energy. • Organizations are shifting away from isolated AI tools toward integrated combinations of cloud infrastructure, data management, cybersecurity, and endpoint hardware. • These readiness gaps threaten the ability of businesses to move AI from experimental phases into full-scale operational use.

• NASA announced a call for proposals on Tuesday, Sept. 8, to develop the technology and infrastructure required to establish a Moon Base in the lunar South Pole region. • The solicitation targets specific capability gaps such as power generation, oxygen extraction, and the production of construction materials on the lunar surface. • These advancements are necessary for humans to maintain long-term operations and sustain exploration efforts on the Moon.

Brothers, convicted of parents’ killings and denied parole last year, permitted to apply for another hearing earlier than expectedErik and Lyle Menendez will be before a parole board again in March, about 17 months earlier than expected.The brothers were originally sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for the 1989 fatal shootings of their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion. A Los Angeles judge reduced their sentences to 50 years to life in May 2025, making them eligible for parole because they were under age 26 when they committed their crimes. Continue reading...

From rare bacteria to ‘forever chemicals’, a series of cases of violations or alleged pollution has prompted alarmWhen officials in Wyoming conducted a routine test on the water that was being discharged from a massive under-construction Meta datacenter, it was a shock to find it contained a rare and potentially hazardous bacterium.While the wastewater flushed into sewers in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was never destined for the public drinking supply, the presence of Cupriavidus gilardii bacterium in 801,000 gallons of water ejected by a contractor for the datacenter earlier this year was still unnerving. Continue reading...

• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is pushing unpopular economic reforms after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won a landslide victory in a regional election. • Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev called the result a historic win that will put migration under control. • The victory creates a high probability of the first far-right state government in Germany, signaling a shift in the political landscape of Europe's largest economy.

Mount Isa city council to auction off first of 24 homes after Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation for Welfare Services accrues almost $1m in unpaid debtsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA rural Queensland council is auctioning off 24 homes to recover unpaid rates, potentially forcing First Nations families into homelessness.Residents claim they were left in the dark about the debt, which stretches back years, until five months ago. Continue reading...

• Pakistan plays Hong Kong today in a critical Women’s Asia Cup match. • A victory in this game would guarantee Pakistan a spot in the semifinals alongside India. • The result determines which teams from Group A advance to the knockout stage of the tournament.